2+2 poll on PPA favorability sparks healthy debate

Yet another “Is the PPA good for poker” debate has popped-up on the 2+2 poker forum, but this time the conversation has been both cordial and enlightening. It started with ‘TheTenderVigilante’ posting a poll asking “Do you have a favorable opinion of the PPA?” Currently the poll results are 178 “YES” votes and 203 “NO” votes, giving the PPA a 47% favorability rating at 2+2. Of course, the real story lies not in the poll results but in the roughly 130 posts in the thread.

Before I get into the individual arguments let me first look at the poll and the poll results.

The Poll

First of all, a 47% favorable rating isn’t really that bad. Essentially, what this number is saying is that the PPA represents the interests of 47% of poker players, which is a huge slice of the pie. So, anyone calling the results “bad” for the PPA is wrong. While it’s not the result you would hope for on a poker forum, it does show that the PPA has both strong supporters and detractors, and that they are about equal.

We also have to consider the poll itself, which was not created by a polling company and is poorly worded with too few choices. A better question to ask would be “Do you SUPPORT the PPA?” with some follow-up questions asking if you support xyz.

It is possible for people to support an organization and have an unfavorable view of them based on their results, or like the far-left with Obamacare, that they haven’t gone far enough. It’s also possible that people with a mild distaste for the PPA may have voted favorable.

Additionally, if the wording remains (favorable/unfavorable) there needs to be a better breakdown of options to choose from:

* I have a very favorable opinion of the PPA

* I have a slightly favorable opinion of the PPA

* I have a neutral opinion of the PPA

* I have a slightly unfavorable opinion of the PPA

* I have a very unfavorable opinion of the PPA

I think we would have been better served by looking at the very favorable and very unfavorable numbers, and treating the remaining voters as “on the fence.” Imagine if the PPA was at 10% very favorable and 24% very unfavorable or vice versa.

The Debate

As I stated above, the real story was in the debate that followed. All of the usual suspects were involved in the debate: Rich Muny and Patrick Fleming from the PPA, Todd Witteles and Haley Hintze representing the anti-PPA crowd, and several NVG users with varying opinions and varying levels of logic and understanding of what the PPA is and does.

Unlike most of these topics this thread is manageable (about 10 pages long) and has some good arguments from both sides. As 2+2 user MauiPunter states:

This thread is going better than expected. Glad the trolling is somewhat at a minimum. The PPA critics are making good points and seem to want to make PPA better, which is great, and not resorting to personal attacks. Well done.

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on Wednesday, July 31st, 2013 at 6:32 pm and is filed under Poker News.
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